


Places Like Home

by StrangeBlueGlow



Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: Bars and Pubs, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 16:06:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11211495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeBlueGlow/pseuds/StrangeBlueGlow
Summary: He was a century and several thousand miles away displaced from the place he called home once, when he could feel the warmth of the sun when it broke through dreary clouds and not the heat of flames every time the light hit him too strongly. It was no use chasing after what was so well lost.





	Places Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [preachersecretsanta](http://preachersecretsanta.tumblr.com/) Summer Secret Santa as a gift to [completetrashmammal](http://completetrashmammal.tumblr.com/)! The prompt was “Dingy bars, strangers, Cassidy, heat”

Cassidy wasn’t sure what state he was in - geographically speaking, mentally his state was simply and easily defined as “high off his arse and looking to be smashed, too.” He didn’t notice if there had been “No Smoking” signs at the entrance to the bar to be ignored or not, but he didn’t care much either way. The way the hazy air closed in around him, the split vinyl of the seat of the bar stool and the duct tape holding it together that curled at the edges and tugged at his jeans with the last bit of stickiness it held, all of it felt like home. Or as close as Cassidy thought he was ever going to get to it, anyway.  He was a century and several thousand miles away displaced from the place he called home once, when he could feel the warmth of the sun when it broke through dreary clouds and not the heat of flames every time the light hit him too strongly. It was no use chasing after what was so well lost.

The sun had gone down outside, the last rays of light disappearing, but the air wouldn’t let go of its heat, driving people into buildings where air conditioners fought against the elements outside and the equal force of living, breathing people generating body heat as they searched for things to make them feel as alive as the blood pumping through their veins told them they were inside.

Idly, Cassidy considered that he might be in need of a snack, thinking about blood like that, but that could wait. Tonight was for knocking back what passed for whiskey in this bar and either trying to feel as alive as he wasn’t or stop feeling at all for a few hours. He’d take either. He’d take anything, really. As they said, beggars could not be choosers, and he had long accepted his lot of whatever life threw at him and milking it for all it was worth. 

Today, life had handed him a morning of bickering in Tulip’s car, followed by a brief detour to scam a pharmacy - he wasn’t sure if Tulip was a beautiful saint doing it out of the kindness of her heart or if she just wanted to shut him up for five minutes while he drank some prescription cough syrup, but he was grateful nonetheless - before an afternoon of being cooped up in a motel room by himself until the sun went down. But now, it was night and ...something... willing ‘cause it was pretty clear that God wasn’t calling the shots on this sort of thing, not anymore at least, it was time to have a little fun.

“Fun,” with any luck - which Cassidy wasn’t sure he had but he was sure going to try anyway - was going to be a pale blonde with short hair, and shy smile, and a rack the size Texas. Never let it be said that he had a type beyond “willing”. After a few drinks for himself to boost his confidence, he plastered on his sweetest smile and most puppy dog eyes and made his way to the other side of the bar where the lovely stranger was sitting.

Luck wasn’t with him on that particular endeavor. It wasn’t with him on his next three endeavors, a redhead, a woman with green and blue streaked hair matching her revealing top, and a blond, respectively, either. Not everything could be as easy as falling out of the sky and into the lap of someone too good looking for their own good who tolerated you being around, he supposed, and he’d managed that twice in just a couple months time. No wonder his luck was running dry when it came to efforts to not spend the evening alone.

Cassidy didn’t have plans to give up, though. He wasn’t a quitter, his century long drug habit was proof enough of that. When he didn’t plan to follow through with things, he tended to just not start them, and he had more than a few witnesses more than willing to vouch for him on that point. Patience was a virtue, apparently, and it might’ve been the only one Cassidy had most days, and hell if he wasn’t going to use it to the best of his ability.

As the night continued, the bar filled with more people, making the building’s old air conditioner work harder, whir more loudly, and leak some coolant out the back that Cassidy would probably fancy trying to get high off of if he wasn’t otherwise occupied with his persistence paying off. He hadn’t gotten  her name yet, but she was another blonde, like the first to get his attention that evening, though less physically blessed, though far more receptive to Cassidy’s advances. A few charming words and she’d let him buy her a drink, and now as she sucked the last of the liquor from the ice in the glass she was leaning in, whispering into his ear about needing to ‘powder her nose’ and inviting him to join her. Cassidy was a right idiot sometimes; he knew that, and he wasn’t sure if now was one of those times or not, but he wasn’t passing the opportunity by. He didn’t have a home but he wouldn’t be going anywhere alone tonight. The woman had slipped off into the crowd in the direction of the restrooms, and Cassidy knocked back the last of his glass, put out his cigarette in the ice and made to follow after her.

He was halfway to the planned destination when a strong, calloused hand caught Cassidy’s arm. 

“Ey, I didn’t know she was anyone’s girl! We were just getting to know each other and then she suggested heading somewhere a bit private and who am I to look a gift horse like that in the mouth? Not-not-not that your girl looks like a horse or nothing, it’s just---” he said quickly, turning quickly to look at whoever had a hold of him, bracing himself for a punch while giving his most sheepish, apologetic smile until his rambling was interrupted.

“Easy, Cassidy,” Jesse chuckled, patting Cassidy’s arm before letting it go, “Didn’t mean to interrupt anything. Just thought I’d let you know that Tulip and I were planning a night in. Beer’s cheaper from the liquor store than it is from a bar and all, and Tulip ain’t up for going out, but you’re welcome to join us. Double beds sleep three just fine. But if you’ve got plans, we’ll see you in the morning.”

The preacher began to pull away before Cassidy responded, making him have to bound after him for a couple steps and wrap his arm around Jesse to get his attention again while trying not to look like a puppy that had just been called a good boy just at the fact that his company was welcomed. “Pft, plans? With her?” he gestured toward the bathrooms and the pretty stranger waiting inside them, “she was probably gonna give me a sub-par blowie and steal my wallet. Getting drunk with my best mates sounds a lot better.”

Jesse raised a skeptical eyebrow at that but didn’t argue. “Well alright. Tulip’s parked outside. Let’s go.”

Cassidy followed after Jesse quickly until the were standing on the sidewalk, the hot, muggy night air hitting him and knocking a thought into his head. “ Wait, I don’t even know where I am. How’d you find me?”

“You’re not exactly inconspicuous, Cass,” Jesse laughed, “Just asked around a bit, ‘hey anyone seen my friend, he’s about yea high, dark hair, skinny, too many tattoos, looks high as a kite and like he ain’t seen the sun in ‘bout a century?’ Easy enough to get pointed in your direction.”

Cassidy was about to make an offended remark, more about the tattoos comment than the one about the sun, when a horn coming from a purple Chevelle parked up the street startled both of them out of the conversation. “If you idiots don’t get in the car I’m getting drunk by myself!” its driver yelled out, Tulip leaning out the window with a smile on her face but a serious enough look in her eyes that both men could tell she meant it.

“Well that just wouldn’t do, would it, love? “ he called back, putting his arm back around Jesse as they walked toward the car. 

The confines of Tulip’s vehicle felt as close to home as the bar did. Closer, even, if Cassidy bothered to be honest with himself. And even with a change of plans, he was right, he wasn’t going anywhere alone, tonight.


End file.
